Social media should look beyond a transactional role and aim to be transformational, Communications and IT Minister Kapil Sibal said here on Friday.

“If you see what is happening in Libya and elsewhere… This (the use of social media) is transformational,” the minister said.
Sibal was inaugurating the Gov2.in Forum, organised by Governance Now magazine and Microsoft India as part of their gov2.in (www.gov2.in) campaign.

“It’s really time this started and I congratulate Gov2.in for the initiative,” he said.

“Sites like this are transactional, like e-commerce. We need to move from transactional to transformational. This is the challenge sites like this will face,” he added.

Sibal pointed out that the increasing use of social media to raise issue of common concern was “essentially a middle-class movement. So, it is not inclusive. How do you make it inclusive? Government has to play a role.”

“In the next two years, government will connect every village, every taluka with broadband. This is our national commitment,” Sibal said.

The minister also suggested social-media uers to discuss and debate “the danger” of the new platform. “All kinds of opinions are put forward are put forward and that is dangerous. Freedom of speech has some caveats. How do you ensure that (social media) sites incorporate constrains of freedom of speech,” Sibal said.

“We shouldn’t be judgmental on social media. These platforms should be looking for processes, for accountability. We need more dialogue and debate on how to take this forward.”

Sibal argued, “There has to be a societal check, that the information put on the site is properly digested.”

The minister also admitted that the government needed to be equipped to respond to the increasing use of social media on governance issues.

“How do we respond to information coming from such platforms? There should be concomitant platforms (on the government side),” the minister said.

Governance Now editor B V Rao in his remarks spoke about the social media revolution as Facebook and Twitter were no longer fads but driving real change on the ground. He highlighted the exemplary work done by Delhi traffic police, among other government departments and organisations, in using social media to improve interaction with citizens.

Microsoft India managing director Sanket Akerkar too spoke of examples set by organisations like India Post and underlined the need to draw up a roadmap for the effective use of social media in further improving governance.

The event was organised in association with Department of Information Technology, National e-Governance Plan and Public Diplomacy division of the Ministry of External Affairs.

While the knowledge partner of the event was India Strategy Group of Hammurabi and Solomon Consulting IIP, the animation partner was Bellpepper Animations. Tata Photon and Zee Business were the connectivity partner and channel partner, respectively, and Public Relations Society of India (PRSI) was the PR partner for the Forum.